Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of systems and methods used to collect or remove particulate materials from ground or floor surfaces. More particularly, the invention relates to mobile vehicles suitable for use in such applications.
Related Art
During many types of material handling, manufacturing and packaging processes, particulates of varying type can be released into the air and eventually accumulate in layers on flooring or ground surfaces. This problem can be exacerbated when the process at hand is undertaken inside of a closed building, as the particulates are essentially trapped within the building. While it is very often desirable to clean such accumulation in order to maintain a clean and safe working environment (or to recapture product that might otherwise be lost), doing so is often problematic. Using a manual, conventional broom-and-dustpan technique can result in a large cloud of fugitive particulates being dispersed into the air, which can cause a potentially hazardous situation for workers. Also, the fugitive particulates released into the air eventually settle on the flooring surface of areas after the cleaners have moved beyond those areas. Also, if the area or factory which is to be cleaned is very large, manually cleaning such a large space can be very time consuming and costly.
Due to these considerations, attempts have been made to generate automated devices to remove particulates from flooring and ground surfaces, such as vacuum vehicles that use moving brushes to sweep the particulates into a collection system. While such systems have proven, in certain circumstances, to be more cost effective and require fewer workers, they very often disperse the same amount of (or even more) fugitive particulates into the air than do manual cleaning processes. Also, such conventional systems have often proven ineffectual for indoor applications, as the machines are not easily maneuvered, and cannot be used to clean very near structures such as walls, equipment, etc.